17-20
1. To what attitude was Montaigne firmly wedded?
2. Who was Marie de Gournay, especially after his death?
3. de Gournay's feminism was in tune with Montaigne's ____?
4. What un-Montaignesque tendency was exhibited by his literary executors?
5. What holds the three great Hellenistic traditions together and binds them to Montaigne?
6. What line from his last essay was Virginia Woolf fond of quoting?
Discussion Questions
- Do you cheerfully accept whatever happens? Should we?
- Did Montaigne share too much personal information? 288 Do we?
- What do you think of recent Critical Theory approaches to literature that minimize the importance of the author's intentions and focus only on the text? 311
- What do you think of Virginia Woolf's "beautiful vision of generations interlinked"? 315
- Are moderation and modesty better than "brilliance" in philosophy and in life? 320
- What does it mean to say that the only enlightenment philosophers can offer is like a "blow on the head"? 327
- Should Montaigne have paid more attention to dogs?
Do you cheerfully accept whatever happens? Should we?
ReplyDeleteShould we accept that it happened? Yes, what else are we supposed to do? Should we accept that we can’t change it? Only if we can’t. I sure say that you should at least try first.
Now should we cheerfully accept it? In no circumstances do you have to. I’m one of the most stoic individuals I know, yet even I sometimes get pissy at my misfortune circumstances. A lot of the times that same feeling serves as the catalyst for a change in my life. It’s that “fire under my butt.”
In the end, I always try to settle myself down, though. I may not cheerfully accept it, but I don’t begrudge it for very long either. The past is the past. That’s one thing you will never change. Might as well just pick up any pieces you still have and keep trucking. It’ll work out somehow. It just may not be the way you had hoped for.
I think the notion of death of the author is very important because it allows us to analyze a text in the way it exists in the world. It seems to me any work begins life like a person a baby only able to stand with the help of the person who made but as it grows it matures and begins to stand on its own and its on this basis that it interacts with the world surrounding it and how that world interacts with it. Once any text is published its outside of its authors control and whoever reads it makes it their's that's part of the basis for the longevity of Montaignes' essays they become a part of us and we understand ourselves through them not through there author, so its important when we study them to consider that they're most alive and most powerful when they stand on their own and that perspective allows for an incredible expansion of ideas and possibilities that only enhances any work.
ReplyDeleteDo you cheerfully accept whatever happens? Should we?
ReplyDeleteAs I understand the term cheerful right now I would say that cheerfulness shouldn't be forced. If we are saying that cheerfulness is synonymous with the word happy I wouldn't say that happiness should be forced under any circumstances. I don't think one should force any emotion in general. One the other hand, if you make the word cheerful synonymous with the word optomistic you might have a point. Instead of letting ourselves become absolutist on what is good and bad for us and resigning ourselves to that oblivion, we try to find a way to make the outcome work in a positve way for us. In that sense I think I can agree.
1. To what attitude was Montaigne firmly wedded?
ReplyDeleteHe was firmly wedded to “amor fati: the cheerful acceptance of whatever happens.” (Bakewell, p286)
2. Who was Marie de Gournay, especially after his death?
Marie de Gournay was Montaigne’s “first great editor and publicist”. (Bakewell, p. 291) She said, “I was his daughter, I am his tomb; I was his second being, I am his ashes.” (Bakewell, p. 297)
3. de Gournay's feminism was in tune with Montaigne's relativism?
4. What un-Montaignesque tendency was exhibited by his literary executors?
ReplyDeleteStrowski and Armaingaud stuck with the Bordeaux Copy as their source and ignored de Gourney’s “readily available published version” and “shared a highly un-Montaignesque tendency to consider themselves the source of the final, unchallengeable word on all matter of Essays textual scholarship.” (Bakewell, p. 305)
5. What holds the three great Hellenistic traditions together and binds them to Montaigne?
The three great Hellenistic traditions are held together “by their shared pursuit of eudaimonmia or human flourishing, and by their belief that the best way of attaining it is through equanimity or balance: ataraxia. These principles bind them to Montaigne…” (Bakewell, p. 317)
6. What line from his last essay was Virginia Woolf fond of quoting?
Virginia Woolf was fond of quoting this from his last essay, the closest he cam to answering the question of how to live: “Life should be an aim unto itself, a purpose unto itself.”